From the dustjacket: "Every Christian who seeks God through prayer is continuing a tradition that began with the 'dsert fathers' of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D...Here, for the first time in English, is the famous work known in Latin as "Apophthegmata Patrum" - a complete collection of the desert fathers' sayings on spiritual progress, inner peace, self-control, pure licing, wealth and poverty, patience, humility, prayer, hospitality. and obedience."